Fine coal feeder



March 5, 1935. c. SCHOLZ FINE COAL FEEDER Filed July 21, 1933 I N VEN TOR.

Patented Mar. 5, 1935 time!) f isms? FINE oo L FEEDER s r tween-1 sem -asap m 2,1,, we; i ge 3 Gla ms My invention relates .to the burning of fine 99. 3 {out of screenings, either by aspiration or' fine screening, together with'fa limitedamount natural or artificial or atomized .oil.

1n burning gm a grate n ost slack coal sizes, there is'a certainiamount of one coal below 40 mesh, which is very".detrimental in the fire-box, usual-1y inas l i afid moisture andonaccount of fineness 'tl eTpass'age .Ofair through the fire bed,'resu1ting inimprqper combustion anden ta l ing material'loss. 'Ifha't this feature is being generally recognized is' indicated v.by the .dedusting devices nowpn the market. The market for ,this dust is limited .to few uses, such as .briquetting', being .too coarse to be burned in without .puIvjerizing' to the fineness re ui red'forthis purpose, .a .costly operation, re-

th lite '11 moisture ,co'nten't makes the economical burning of this dust impossible. Pulverized coal, when burned as such, is reduced so that 90% passes through a 200 mesh sieve, whereas the dust obtained by close screening or dedusting only contains from 8 to 20% of this size, the remainder being of coarser size from 100 mesh to 1/25" square opening.

My dry-flow feeder is designed to burn this coarse dust most eificiently and is adapted to intermittent service, such as for brick kilns, where a fresh fire must be started after each change of charge and where a very wide range in temperature is required, with close adjustment during the various burning stages. It is also adapted for domestic use or boiler installations of any size. Coal with 14% ash and 9.5% moisture as received, has been successfully burned by me and my invention will greatly reduce fuel costs, where gas or oil has to be used for special purposes.

In general, my apparatus consists of a combined dryer and feeder, with a hopper of suitable size to hold the fuel, the bottom of this hopper being a revolving disk, the coal being fed on this disk by an eccentric position of the hopper to the disk. This eccentric motion not only insures a positive amount of coal being fed out, but by the turn of a hand wheel, the amount can be accurately gauged, a feature most important where there is a variation of fuel requirement. Underthe disk is a semicircular gas heater, which dries the coal spread on the disk, the vapor escaping into the atmosphere.

From the dryer the dust passes into a blower fan and through a pipe into a nozzle where the combination of coal and gas can take place. Regulation of the proper amounts of air for coal and wgasare. provided for, provision also being made to giye a" much egrc'e, air as the particular t e u ee i i h .r maqeempea n rise with f agme t ry se is a wease ss is anilin 2 2 of i 1, and" 4 3 e Vertical section 59 the ine 3 3 of Fig ine coal 1 is deposited in the hopper 2 and below the hopper is a rotary plate 3, there being a space between the bottom of the hopper and the plate of about an inch and through which the coal is fed onto the plate. If the hopper and plate are concentric with each other, the coal will not feed out of the hopperonto the plate, even when the plate is rotated, due to the cohesiveness of the mass of fine coal.,When, however, the plate and hopper are eccentric to each other, then on rotation of the plate, the coal will feed out of the hopper onto the plate in the manner more fully hereinafter described.

The hopper may-be slidably supported in any suitable manner on supports 4 so that it can be eocentrically adjusted relative to the rotary plate. For this purpose, I provide angle brackets 5 and 6 secured to the hopper that slide on the horizontal members '7 carried by the supports 4 and brackets 8 and 9 that slide on the horizontal members 10 and 11, respectively, carried by the supports 4. For adjusting the hopper to varying horizontal positions, I may use a hand wheel 12 provided with a screw 13 engaging the upright portions 14 and '15 carried respectively by the bracket 9 and member 11. Secured to the underside of theplate 3 is a spur gear 16 meshing with a pinion 1'7 connected to the electric motor 18 through shaft 19 and suitable speed reducing gearing 20. A lever 21 carried by the supports 4 is used for disengaging the gear 16 and pinion 17. Depending from the underside of the plate 3 is the spindle 33 rotatably mounted in a bearing support 34.

eferring to tl re drawing for a more complete 5 Below the plate 3 is a gas burner 22 for heating 7 the plate to dry the coal.

Connected to the motor 18 is a fan blower 23 in the casing 24. Underneath the plate 3 is a funnel shaped hopper for receiving the fine coal that is to be fed into the blower.

Louvers 26 carried by the blower casing adjust the amount of air fed to the blower for mixing with the coal dust.

Carried by the hopper 25 is a knife 2'7 for sweeping the coal dust off of the plate 3 into the hopper 25 as the plate rotates.

Secured to the outlet of'the fan blower is a conduit 28 for carrying the coal dust to the burner 29. The conduit 28 is surrounded by the air jacket 30 provided with an air regulator 31. Surrounding the conduit 28 is a gas oroil burner With the hopper 2 in the eccentric position, the coal 1 will be spread out, as shown in Fig. 2, on the plate 3 as it rotates, and swept oil the plate by the knife into the hopper 25 and fed by the fan blower to the burner. By adjusting the eccentric position'of the hopper 2'and plate 3, the amount of coal that will be fed to the burner can be adjusted in amount from zero when the hopper and plate are concentric to the maximum when the hopper and plate are in the most eccentric relative positions.

The coal should be dried to less than 3% of moisture so that no dust will stick to the blades of g the fan and in order to insure an intimate mixture of air and coal dust.

v I am aware that my invention may be embodied in other specific forms without, departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof, and I therefore desire the present embodiment to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appended claims, rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of theinvene tion.

What I claim isf 1. A feeding apparatus for fine coal comprising a hopperhaving a discharge opening at its lower end, a horizontal plate, rotating on a vertical axis, below the discharge opening and spaced from the lower end of the hopper, the hopper and the plate being mounted eccentricially to each other, means for horizontally adjusting the ,hopper relative to the plate to vary the degree of eccentricity of the hopper to the plate and thereby vary the amount of coal fed on the plate from the hopper and means for removing the coal from the plate.

2. A feeding apparatus for fine coal comprising a hopper having a discharge opening at its lower end, a horizontal plate, rotating on a vertical axis, below the discharge opening and spaced from the lower end of the hopper, the hopper and the plate being mounted eccentrically to each other, means for horizontally adjusting the hopper relative to the plate to vary the degree of eccentricity of the hopper to the plate and thereby vary the amount of coal fed on the plate, from the hopper and a scraper blade fixed to the hopper for removing the coal from the plate in any of the adjusted positions. I

' 3. A feeding apparatus for fine coal comprising a hopper having a'discharge opening at'its lower end, a horizontal plate below the dischargeopening and spaced from the lower end of the hopper, means for rotating one of the parts about its vertical axis, means for horizontally adjusting one of the parts relative to the other, to vary their degree of eccentricity and thereby vary the amount of coal fed on the plate from the hopper, the vertical axis of the plate in all positions being within the boundary of the discharge opening and means for removing the coal from the plate.

' CARL SCHOLZ, 

